Quote:
Originally Posted by meeera
When I'm reading books like novels, I just want the "design" to get the hell out of my way. An in-theme, discreet scene separator graphic or chapter header is fine, but otherwise, just write competent, basic markup.
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I totally second that feeling...
However, what is really annoying is that within these specifications, there's so much going on. I like that the Kindle has very few adjustment options and generally equalizes and harmonizes layout, yet the books are not stripped of enough of their formatting and even with store-bought books, you get all kinds of different line spacings, margin settings, font size levels etc and you can only react to them in very limited ways (and this then totally messes up the settings for other books). iBooks is a bit better in that regard, but when you come across a book that forces its very unconventional formatting, you are even more lost (because all you can adjust are font sizes and types).
Recently I have come to appreciate a modded Kobo for reading because it allows override of many atrocious design decisions, but even there, you have to suffer things like huge lines between paragraphs (instead of small spaces and/or slight indentations) and last lines of paragraphs ending on the next page (which, in combination with exaggerated paragraph spacing does indeed look terrible)...
I totally get that most people do not care about design (but often think of “decorum” instead of the more general “design”) and just want to get lost in the words... I am the same, but in my case (and this is not because I am overly aware), when I turn the page to see it begin with only a couple of words and then a huge blank space leading up to the next paragraph, this really kills my flow because I quite “materially” lose connection to the previously written.
I see that for light fiction read in a very schematic way for general plot, this might not matter, but if, like some here claim, you really only care about the “words”, proper design does facilitate that...